Scatter Love! image: Fat Mum Slim & Emma Kate Creative
I want to tell you guys a little story that I’ve been meaning to share with you since I first started this blog.
The story is about my friend Pam. Pam is my 70-something year old neighbour, who is full of sass, old-school attitude, and a heart as big the ocean. Pam and I have now been friends for about a year and I thought it was timely to tell you our story, since it all began with the original Scatter Love project that was dreamed up by two very talented ladies Chantelle Ellem aka blogger Fat Mum Slim & artist extraordinaire Emma Kate.
Now that the latest range of Scatter Love postcards are available {and cos it’s nearly Christmas and I love me a feel-good story at this time of year} I thought I’d share with you the original story of how Pam and I went from being slightly hostile neighbours, to the best of friends!
Here goes:
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Scatter Love project, its basically a pack of 10, beautifully designed post cards intended to be popped in the mailbox, sending messages of kindness and love to your friends, family, or even a stranger. This small act then ‘scatters love’ across the world, and good things happen!
Back in January when the first Scatter Love postcards were released, I bought some online andonce they arrived, I got thinking. Who would really benefit from receiving one of these? I sent one to my Sister, I sent one to my Husband, cos well, I even sent one to Violet, who was only 6 months old at the time. I sent one out for each of the Grandparents and signed them from Violet because I fondly remembered sending letters to my own grandparents when we were kids. After that, I sent a couple more to my girlfriends, but ended up with one postcard left over. It was the one with the polka dots and a big cheery ‘hello’ on the front.
Eventually, I decided to do something a little bit out-there {crazy even?} and send one to our cranky old neighbour that lived over the back. This lady had lived there long before we moved in 7 or so years ago. She’d always been kinda rude, constantly sitting out on her back porch smoking. If she glanced our way she just stared at us. No wave, no hello, nothing! Her house was a high-set home, and it overlooked our back yard. Anytime we were in the yard we kinda felt like we were being watched, so we didn’t spend a whole lotta time out there. Unlike most sweet ol’ ladies, this lady just seemed a little bitter at the world. I know that when we’d first moved in that there was another lady who was living there with her, however we hadn’t seen her in the last few years, so I’d assumed she’d either gone into a home or passed away.
This is the Scatter Love postcard from the original series that I sent to Pam. Hello! image: Fat Mum Slim
So despite knowing nothing of our neighbour except what I’ve just told you, I wrote her a postcard. I told her who we were, where we lived and drew a little stick-figure drawing of myself, Trav Violet and Minty. I told her that we often saw her sitting on her back porch and that if she felt like waving to us, we’d wave right back. I sent it, and immediately kinda regretted (How awkward if she got it and STILL ignored us?). Too late! It was done, and I’d just have to wait to see what happened.
Imagine my surprise when a few days later I came home to find Pam at my front door! Yep, Scatter Love had worked its magic…
You can read the full story on the original Fat Mum Slim blog post here.
Eventually, I wrote to the lovely Chantelle to thank her for giving me the courage to do such a bold thing, and to show her that the project was really working in our little neighbourhood! She responded almost immediately and asked if she post my story on her blog, which I of course agreed to (however f I’d know she was going to post my email verbatim I’d have probably made more effort to fix any spelling and grammar mistakes) Once the story was published I received so many lovely messages and couldn’t believe how a simple post card could cause so much joy amongst so many people!
Pam and Violet up to no good. As usual!
Chantelle also recounted our Scatter Love story at the recent Pro Blogger conference at the Gold Coast, and reported back that so many people were moved by our story. I was chuffed, but also kind of amazed at how a simple act of kindness could cause such ripples! Keeping in mind that I’m not some Mother Theresa type who set out to become life-long pals with my cranky old neighbour, I was just hoping to make it a little less awkward for us to spend time in our own backyard! Just goes to show how a small act can create big ripples though, huh?
If you guys haven’t bought some of the latest range of Scatter Love postcards, I highly recommend it! Not only are the gorgeous to look at (I’ve kept the Pineapple one to frame) but they are kinda life-changing as well! If you’d like to get your hands on a set you can buy them here.
So there you go! theres still some good in the world and it doesn’t take much to make it happen!
Disclaimer: There are still quite a few rubbish neighbours in the world that will never be your friends! For example one set of our neighbours allow their dog to regularly relieve itself on our front lawn…but let’s not go there and ruin the moment shall we?
Ps – Now that I’ve introduced Pam to you all, you can expect lots more blog posts with her as the topic, I think you guys are going to love her as much as I do!
xo Marns
Marns The Mama Blog 